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A drug which can be stored at room temperature could save the lives of thousands of women in developing countries when they have excessive loss of blood after giving birth.

Around 70,000 women a year die from post-partum haemorrhage - the loss of at least 500ml of blood up to 24 hours after birth - and it is the leading cause of maternal death in low and middle income countries. Babies whose mothers die in childbirth are also more likely to die within the first month of life.

The standard treatment for the condition is the drug oxytocin but this must be stored and transported at between two and five degrees Celsius - a challenge in some developing countries with poor access and electricity supplies.

But now a study led by the World Health Organization has found that the drug carbetocin, which can be stored at temperatures of up to 30 degrees Celsius and 75 per cent humidity for at least three years, is just as effective as oxytocin.

The clinical trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, studied nearly 30,000 women who gave birth vaginally in 10 countries: Argentina, Egypt, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda and the UK.

Each woman was randomly given a single injection of carbetocin or oxytocin immediately following the birth of her baby. The study found that both drugs were equally effective at preventing excessive bleeding after birth.

The oxytocin administered in the trial had been stored at the correct temperature so the positive effects of the new drug may be even greater in the real world where oxytocin may have degraded if stored incorrectly, the researchers say.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, hailed the study.

"This is a truly encouraging new development that can revolutionise our ability to keep mothers and babies alive," he said.

The drug is not yet approved and will have to be assessed by WHO's independent guidelines committee. However, if it is included on the next list of essential medicines it could be available from as soon as next year.

Dr Metin Gulmezoglu, coordinator of maternal perinatal health at WHO, said that scientists and doctors had been looking for a drug that did not have to stored at low temperatures for many years.

"Heat stability is something that we have been looking for for many years because of the degradation of oxytocin, because of maintaining the cold chain in peripheral health centres but also because of making the whole supply chain more efficient. This is an important development for maternal health globally," he said.

Ferring Pharmaceuticals, which developed carbetocin, has signed an agreement with WHO that the drug will remain affordable and sustainable for low and middle income countries.

Klaus Dugi, chief medical officer at the firm, said: "My colleagues at Ferring are working extremely hard to bring down the cost as much as possible without compromising the quality of the product. But it's too early to say what the final price will be."